Targeting immigrants?

Some senators appear to be ready to punish GOOD immigrants to get at the few BAD ones. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File)

Senator Charles Grassley says since the two Boston Marathon Bombers weren’t born here – it might be prudent to take a closer look at the immigration bill now before his committee.

“How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws – including this new bill before us?” asked Grassley.

Others share similar concerns.

What fascinates me is the Senate couldn’t find a way to pass a compromise on background checks for gun buyers, on the grounds that it would be wrong to inconvenience GOOD gun users just to get at a few BAD gun users.

And yet now, some senators appear to be ready to punish GOOD immigrants to get at the few BAD ones.

Well, in Boston, there were immigrants on both sides.

Carlos Arredondo – the man in the cowboy hat who helped that victim whose lower legs were blown off. He’s an immigrant from Costa Rica.

And Lu Lingzhi, the third bomb victim to be identified –
she grew up on the grounds of an elite training academy for members of the Chinese Communist party! But she’d fallen in love with Boston. That’s why she ended up at the Marathon.

Boston was different from Newtown. It was a terrifying attack on a big public event, not a small elementary school. But if the Senate ends up punishing all immigrants because of a terrifying attack with a death toll of three – it’s even harder to explain why they responded with a shrug to a terrifying attack with a death toll of 26.